1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure and method for transferring a column address and, more specifically, to a structure and method for transferring a column address in a semiconductor device, which can prohibit consumption of current by controlling the column address of a DRAM device.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A column address in an exiting SDRAM or DDR SDRAM is a type that operates every clock. As there is an interrupt operation internally, the column address was made to inevitably operate every clock.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional method of transferring the column address.
Referring to FIG. 1, an external address signal (E_Add) passes through an address buffer unit 10 and a latch unit 20. The address decoded in a column address decoder is transmitted to a memory cell. The address buffer unit 10 buffers the external address signal (E_Add) and the latch unit 20 is operated by a clock signal (iclkp) to latch the output of the address buffer unit 10. The latch unit 20 is synchronized to a clock pulse (iclkp) generated in a clock means in latching an effective address to receive the external address signal (E_Add) every clock. Therefore, as the latch unit 20 consumes current every clock, there is a problem that consumption of current due to the input of an unnecessary clock signal takes place.
For example, in a read or write operation of a burst length 4 operation, the interrupt operation is not allowed. This means that the external address signal (E_Add) is not needed to be applied to the inside in a next clock after the read or write command is applied. As described above, however, as the clock signal is applied to the latch unit in the prior art, unnecessary consumption of current due to this occurs.